All five of our Democratic representatives wrongly voted today for a unique 90 percent tax meant to recoup bonuses paid to American International Group.

Diana DeGette, Betsy Markey, Ed Perlmutter, Jared Polis and Ken Salazar joined the overwhelming majority in Congress to pass the bill, according to the roll call. (The Senate takes up the matter next week.)

Colorado’s Republican representatives Mike Coffman and Doug Lamborn rightly voted against the measure, though their party shares some of the blame for the bill’s passage, as 85 Republicans joined the 243 Democrats who supported the tax.

We’re as angry as anyone that the same AIG executives who played a central role in crashing the economy got the big bonuses – which no doubt they would have lost had Washington not bailed out the company with $173 billion in taxpayer money.

But using the tax code to punish people operating under a legal contract – the details of which had been clearly made available in SEC filings – sets a terrible precedent and undermines our country’s reputation for supporting the rule of law.

As we argued in an editorial today, Congress had plenty of chances to set clear guidelines for how salary payments and bonuses should be made to executives at firms thath received bailout money. But Congress failed to do so.

The public stoning of AIG that Congress and our elected Democratic representatives are engaging in is a hypocritical ploy meant to divert the attention of voters who are rightly incensed at the bonuses away from the real culprits: Congress and the Obama administration.

This tax is ridiculous and we hope cooler heads prevail in the Senate – and that Colorado senators Michael Bennet and Mark Udall are among them.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.